7 Roman and Ancient Sites to Visit in Portugal’s Alentejo Region

Historic sites are not usually kids’ favorite tourist attractions, but if you offer them spooky stories and mysteries to unravel to accompany these sites, you’re more likely to grab their attention. Families traveling in Portugal’s Alentejo region will find Roman buildings still standing and even an entire unearthed Roman town. Enigmatic stone structures that were once tombs dot the landscape.

The Alentejo offers dramatic remains of both the Romans and prehistoric inhabitants, and seeking these out takes you to many of the region’s other highlights, as well. Evora, the region’s largest city, is a good place to begin. At its center rise the 14 columns of Portugal’s best-preserved Roman structure, a temple \ saved in a curious way. It was used as a slaughterhouse in the Middle Ages, enclosed by wooden walls that held the columns upright over the centuries. Go back after dark to see it lighted.

Step back in time before the Romans with the Evora Megalithic Circuit Map, which organizes several prehistoric sites into a handy route; look for signs pointing to Megaliticos to help locate them. The Alentejo holds one of Europe’s highest concentrations of Neolithic sites, and these are far older than others in western Europe.

The Cromeleque dos Almendres, a group of 95 menhirs (standing stones), predates Stonehenge by about 3,000 years. Their purpose and the meaning of the carved inscriptions on the taller ones still puzzle historians. Less puzzling, but more enticing to kids, are the dolmen, the remains of large burial tombs built of massive stone slabs covered by a capstone.

These ancient monuments vary in size; Zanbujeiro, Europe’s largest, towers more than 20 feet high. Its capstone has broken and fallen beside the long passageway. Help kids imagine what these looked like when they were built as burial chambers and covered in earth and grass. More dolmen and standing stones are at Vale Rodrigo.

One of the most complete dolmens is outside of nearby Estremoz (kids will want to see the castle there, once home to a king and queen). The walls of Anta Tapadão at Aldeia da Mata rise more than 7 feet above ground, and the capstone still covers the chamber. Kids will certainly want to climb inside, allowed even though this is a national monument.

Two Roman villas near Beja give kids a view of how wealthy Romans lived during their occupation of Portugal. São Cucufate was a country villa enlarged into a rather grand estate in the third and fourth centuries. Impressive high walls and vaulted galleries still stand, giving kids a sense of the grandeur of the wealthy Romans’ living style.

Nothing remains of the buildings at nearby Roman Villa of Pisões, but intricate mosaics of its floors have been unearthed, as has Portugal’s best example of an elaborate private Roman bath.

The best of all the Roman sites, where families can walk on a Roman road, cross a third-century arched stone bridge and stand inside a vast ancient hippodrome, is the Roman town of Miróbriga. Among the extensive ruins are the forum with government buildings and shops, as well as three temples. A large public bath has been excavated, showing its elaborate heating system. Standing in the hippodrome, which measures more than 1,200 by 250 feet, it’s easy for kids to picture the chariot races once held here.